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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Strange in Skin Trilogy

From the moment Anna James meets the strange prisoner Emry Logan, she becomes instantly obsessed and will stop at nothing to try to get another interaction with him. But going against her family and church aren’t without consequence. She is deemed a traitor as she quickly realizes that there’s more to Emry’s past than just murder. He has a special ability that is far from human that he only shares with her. Feeling this magical connection, Anna has to free her beautiful inmate so that they can be together finally, but someone else knows about Emry’s secret and wants Anna to stop digging for answers as she finds herself in the midst of a modern day witch hunt. The life of an innocent pastor’s kid suddenly is turned upside down in a war between good and evil as Anna begins to wonder which people in her life are on the side of good, and is she one of them.

When Anna becomes separated from Emry, she has no other choice but to explore the foreign world of Evadere on her own. She soon discovers that it is tainted from a stirring turmoil among the people.

Evadere has been a place of respite and escape from the difficulties of Earth for Anna and Emry, but alone on Evadere, Anna is pulled into the stirrings of an uprising between the Scaves and the ones who force them to live as scavengers. Anna is determined not to let the fear and attempts on her life stop her from finding her way back to Emry.

But Anna is shocked when she discovers who Emry really is, the forces of evil supporting him and how the temptations in paradise have been misleading them both.It will take all the strength and determination Anna and Emry possess to survive Evadere, even as the killing starts ...

Emry and Anna's love has always been forbidden. They've been hunted, seen those around them murdered and still don't know who to blame or who to trust. In a world where Anna is considered just a human, can peace be achieved between those inhabiting Evadere and those cast out and left for dead? They have to find out who is after them before it's too late, before one of the lives lost is their own, but are Emry's powers strong enough to save the one he loves? As their wedding day approaches, so does a war, and no one sees it coming.

The "Strange in Skin" Trilogy is a unique and creative blend of the fantasy, suspense and romance genres that are intricately woven together giving us the story of Anna James and Emry Logan. The first book in the series, "Strange in Skin", introduces us to Anna and Emry and their serendipitous meeting at the local prison, where Anna is giving religious pamphlets to the inmates and where Emry is being held on charges of murder. Anna and Emry feel and instant and profound connection, the honesty and sadness that Anna sees in Emry's eyes, instinctively tell her that Emry is innocent. And so, the mission begins for Anna to discover the truth behind Emry's incarceration and who he really is. Anna is astonished to discover that not only does Emry has special abilities but can transport to another world; a stunningly beautiful world that Emry takes her to and shares with her. As Anna delves deeper in her journey to free Emry, she uncovers truths about her family and an ugly evil lurking all around her. The love that grows between Anna and Emry, not only strengthens her resolve to free Emry, but also finds freedom to become more than she ever thought she could be.

The second book in the series, "Evadere", picks up where the first book leaves off. Emry and Anna are finally free to be together, having proven Emry's innocence, he is no longer in prison and the evil that once threatened to destroy their love has been removed as well. Emry and Anna are spending more time on Evadere, the magically beautiful world that Emry has been transporting to during times of duress. Emry has never encountered anyone else or any other living thing on Evadere; Emry and Anna spend their time on Evadere laying on a beautiful white beach, next to crystal clear waters, dreaming of their future, which includes exploring more of Evadere. Unexpectedly, Anna awakens to find herself alone on Evadere, unable to transport back to Earth on her own, and ignorant of the unexplored area of Evadere, Anna panics and becomes lost. Through the help of a young girl, Jo, Anna learns much about the land of Evadere and the people that inhabit it. The people live in different clusters, based upon specific powers that they are born with, and each group are labeled or named for that specif power. The groups or peoples, call themselves "contributors", as their powers give them the ability to contribute to every other group of contributors and to the world of Evadere itself; for example, there are contributors with powers to grow plants & food, contributors with powers of medical skills and so forth. But, as in all things, there are also two groups of extremes, one at each end of the spectrum; the Royalties, have the powers of all the individual contributor groups combined, and the power to transport between worlds, while the Scaves, or Scavengers, are born without any powers at all. Jo, the young girl helping Anna, ﻿is a Scav. Anna barely escapes the hostile outlands of Evadere and the violence directed at anyone that isn't a contributor, and with Jo's help, finds her way back to Emry. Anna and Emry once again find themselves torn apart as powerful and dangerous forces surround them and manipulate their love.

The third and final book in the series, "Solace" find Emry and Anna finally overcoming the manipulation and lies that threatened to tear them apart. Whereas book one, "Strange in Skin", focused more on Anna overcoming her inner demons and challenging the restraints placed upon her and book two, "Evadere", gave us insight to Emry's history and growth into himself and that of his powers..."Solace" is a blending of Anna and Emry. This is where everything was leading us...Emry and Anna still have challenges to overcome, but with the first two books, they were physically apart, now they are united and the strength of their love and devotion is almost tangible.

Sara V. Zook has done an excellent job at building the excitment and momentum to bring these two wonderful characters to life...I really enjoyed reading Anna and Emry's story... ~Kathy

3.5 Stars

AUTHOR BIO

Sara wrote her first book at age six. Ofcourse, it was only a few pages, handwritten by a 6-year-old and was about kitty cats. As a child, some days she would be out venturing in the woods with her older brother and cousins, but sometimes would stay inside and create stories, write them down in a notebook and then pretend to publish them by typing them up on her mother's old typewriter. "I know, what a weird child I was." From then on out, Sara didn't want to be anything but a writer. When others would ask her classmates what they wanted to be when they grew up, some would say the usual things, singers, veterinarians, astronauts, but not Sara. Sara would say writer, and then she'd get a strange stare. Writer? What child says they want to be a writer?

Sara graduated from United High School in 2000, a small school out in the country where everyone knew each other from kindergarten up and could tell you every little detail about each other and still can. "It was a nice area to grow up, and I love going back."

In 2004, Sara graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a bachelor's in, you guessed it, creative writing. She had such a blast in college, met some of the greatest people that Sara still remains in close contact with along with her husband, Brad. They were married and had two children back to back, so while Sara was in "mommy land," her writing was put on the back-burner.

Sara started writing again in the summer of 2010, and after three months, 'Strange in Skin' became the product of her imagination. Sara had so much fun writing it, she couldn't stop. She would work all day and then stay up late at night typing up a few more chapters. She didn't want it to end, so Sara decided she would have to write more books to follow it. The main characters, Anna James and Emry Logan, were people Sara could relate to, that she loved to relate to. There's nothing quite like a sappy love story that's so good it sucks you in. You want them to be together. They have to be together and you can't stop reading until they are together. That with a little paranormal twist, and voila, a book is born.

Then Sara and Brad became proud parents once again. Sara is still in "mommy land" but also Strange in Skin fantasy land. The mix of both raising children and writing makes for some pretty entertaining days. Sara could write a million stories on her kids alone, especially the things that come out of their mouths that you're either so shocked they said or are so funny that you can't stop laughing.

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We're five book loving ladies who started out as strangers and bonded over our shared love of reading. We're here to give you honest reviews, share up and coming authors, host fun giveaways, and have discussions on the books we read. We LOVE feedback and getting comments/messages from you! Thanks for all the love!